Creativity Within Efficiency: A Project Management Department Spotlight

Take an 8 year old child for instance, and pose the question:

“When you think of the word Creative, what first comes to your mind?”

To bring up the concept of creativity to anyone with a young mind, like a child, would most likely associate creativity with art. This was also my immediate answer for the past 18 years of my life, even as a practitioner in events and people management.

To exercise creativeness in Project Management is to say that one also sees its beauty and efficiency in execution. Creativeness often contradicts the usual understanding of everyday occurrences, tying together the words originality and interdisciplinary into the party. This is because being creative never stops with the mere thinking of ideas.

What made you choose to take up a leadership position in this department?

The late months of 2020 came with nothing but a spark of an idea, an execution: to bring people together, work together, into accomplishing a great advocacy. ACTM’s CSR 2021: Kabanata was a thrilling experience – not only in bringing out something tangible, but also in ensuring that all of the project planning’s processes came together in a proactive way. I was mentored by my two co-Project Heads, Seve Vargas and Kirsten Mayuga who shared not only secrets of becoming great leaders, but also creating methodological approaches to the best of ideas.

After experiencing the nits and grits of handling a single project with the help of an entire core team, I decided it was about time to take it a step further. A compelling thought came: Can I help aid the creative execution of not only one – but each project of ACTM?

I believed that I could, even if I was not perceived as artistic in nature. I was a freshman who was afraid of going for something that seemed quite too far out of my reach – too intimidating for someone with new ideas.

Everything I knew within me, urged creativity for enthralling ideas. Project Management was always about fine-tuning less costly processes that in return, garner a greater reward. This could always be applied through either mapping out a project blueprint to executing well-thought-out activities. The technicalities of Project and Events Management should never serve as a hindrance to what I thought I couldn’t describe as creativity; this was the place I felt at my best.

What makes your department special/stand out from the others?

My department consists of critical thinking leaders that also have the knack for being comical – these being my Associate Vice Presidents: Chloe Tong, Zachy Cui, and Miggy Corachea. We do our best to place our members into a practical thinking mindset, that overall turns into a space for members to exercise a career-oriented skill set, encompassing all aspects of technical, risk and managerial leadership. My department offers the practice to further develop crucial skills applicable towards any field, from marketing all the way up to engineering, and even social sciences. Consisting of almost 70 Project Management Deputies, we are considered to be one of the biggest departments in ACTM that practices execution management at its best.

Are there any activities, initiatives, or events that your department has held so far in this school year?

This 2021, we have created the Consulting Arm for Managing Projects (CAMP Pool) for deputies to ideate initiatives within the Project Management department and to aid the execution of initiatives from other outside departments within ACTM. This consists of aiding the execution of ideas in terms of programs, logistics and operations.

Do you have any notable plans for your department for this school year? What unique learning opportunities can your department offer to its members?

With 8 outstanding leaders in the CAMP Pool, we are currently in the process of applying Project Management to your everyday lives – be that through your internships or organizing your daily activities at home. In 2022, upcoming Project Management Talks & Workshops will be coming your way, as well as informational infographics to keep you posted with Project Management tools that you can use anywhere at any given time.

In the Project Management Department, we enable ACTM members within the department to maximize efficiency in healthy working environments, develop career-oriented project management skill sets within internal and external opportunities provided by the department, and expand the creative exploration of the department's abilities towards aspects of increased technical, risk and managerial leadership.

To pose a question once more:

“When you think of the word Creative, what first comes to your mind?”

Even as a student leader, innovation calls for its existence the moment you place yourself out to face problems in any given community or organization because you call for change. Creativeness often contradicts the usual understanding of everyday occurrences, one that is never initially there.

I was able to come to the full realization that my own practice of creativity is never merely limited to the way I handled my paintbrush or strummed my guitar strings, but how I can exercise this in the specific field I am currently in my leadership position, often hidden by the processes it commonly presents.

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